


The Damsel

by beautifulmidnight



Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Damsels in Distress, F/M, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-15
Updated: 2014-07-15
Packaged: 2018-02-08 22:59:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1959345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beautifulmidnight/pseuds/beautifulmidnight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Slevin Dallas rescues Vaeh from a deathclaw and must escort her back to Hidden Valley.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Damsel

**Author's Note:**

> Slevin Dallas is my original Fallout character whom I recently started to roleplay with. He's a former member of the Brotherhood of Steel who has been wandering the wastes looking for his brother for the past ten years. This is his intro story.

The grip on his Gauss rifle slackened as he lay down on the filthy mattress. The once bright orange flames from his small campfire were now diminishing, the remnants of a dinner of gecko steaks abandoned next to a small pile of kindling.

Slevin sighed, gazing tiredly up at the night sky. The waning moon was nebulous in the inky black night and closing his eyes to the magnificence of it all felt wrong.

“Evan,” he said softly, “good night, wherever you are.”

It was hard to believe that after all his years of searching, he never found his oldest brother. In a family of seven, Slevin was the youngest and Evan was the oldest. Slevin mentally shook his head. He loved his brother dearly, even though the last time he saw the man was when he was only ten. That was when everyone stopped calling him Seven.

Seven was Slevin’s real name. Being born the seventh child, and seven being his mother’s favorite number that always brought her luck (she later related to him that it was a miracle they both survived his birth. She said that it lasted seven hours, another ‘lucky seven’ occurrence she added to her long list of blessed things), well, it was only natural his name would be Seven.

The year of his tenth birthday, Evan left on a mission and never returned. As Seven grew older, the resemblance to his older sibling was uncanny. They shared the same intense blue eyes, unblemished olive skin, and chestnut brown hair. He not only looked like Evan’s twin, but his gestures and mannerisms were nearly exact. Everyone, even his own parents, would call him Evan. It wasn’t intentional, Slevin knew.

He took pride in it, actually. His brother was one of the greatest senior paladins in their chapter of the Brotherhood. He was intelligent and courageous, never one to back down from a fight. He was a battle-hardened fighter and by all appearances, one would never suspect such a kind soul would reside behind all that power armor.

But Slevin was his own person. As much as he liked being compared to his brother, he wasn’t Evan. He combined the name Seven and Evan and came up with Slevin, the perfect name to honor himself and his brother. He wasn’t known by any other name ever since.

Sometimes he wondered if leaving the Brotherhood of Steel was the right thing to do. If he stayed, he could’ve still searched for Evan. He would be at home with his family and friends.

And Inara.

She probably didn’t even remember him. He left at sixteen and he was now twenty-six. Ten years was a long time to wait for him, even if he were to return. If he could return. He hoped she found happiness with someone. She wasn’t happy with him when he said good-bye.

Then again, his family wasn’t pleased with him either. They were probably worried sick about him, but out here in the Mojave, he had no idea who he could trust to get word back to them. San Francisco was a long way away. And besides, the Elder made it perfectly clear than when he left, he couldn’t return. Slevin assumed that meant no communication, either.

Could he rejoin the Brotherhood? Would he want to, even if he could? He wasn’t sure. He missed everyone back in the bunker terribly, but it had been ten years. In that time span he learned to be his own company and answered to no one. Would he willingly go back to a life where he reported to a superior, doing whatever assignment he was given, no questions asked?

He yawned and turned onto his side. He needed new thoughts to cradle him to sleep. The ones he was currently bouncing around were getting tiresome.

He drifted off to sleep.

 

He didn’t know how long he had been sleeping – it could have been minutes or hours or even days – he had no idea. But the sound of a gun firing snapped him awake and he scrambled for his rifle and pack.

“Oh shit!” he heard a female voice curse. “Die already, damn you!”

The most ungodly roar pierced his ears. The noise could not only be heard, but felt – it settled into his bones and his spine shivered. He knew the identity of the creature who was howling. It was a deathclaw.

“Goddamn it!” she shouted.

He didn’t hesitate. He ran in the direction of the noise and saw a petite woman backpedaling away from a young deathclaw, its talons swiping as he advanced upon her. He watched in horror as its claw caught her and sent her flying across the wastes, her weapon clattering uselessly to the ground.

Slevin fired and one his shots caused the deathclaw to stagger. It was easy to subdue the creature and within seconds the deathclaw was dead. Slevin rushed to the young woman’s side, not even waiting for the deathclaw to stop twitching.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She groaned.

He brought her weapon closer and was surprised it was an Anti-Materiel rifle. No wonder she was struggling to fire it.

“Ma’am?” he prompted.

“If you’re a NCR trooper, go away please,” she breathed.

Slevin cracked a smile. “I’m not a soldier. I’m just a wanderer.”

Her eyes fluttered open. They were a beautiful hazel, clear and vibrant. He noticed her hair was black but had streaks of blue threaded throughout the strands. Was she a raider?

“Can you move?”

She groaned again. “My body hurts. I need to get home.”

“Home? Where is home?”

She lowered her eyes and bit her bottom lip, and he noticed her lips were a pale wine color. She looked fragile and vulnerable. “I don’t know if I can trust you with that information.”

Slevin frowned. Where did this girl live?

“I can’t help you ma’am, if you aren’t willing to tell me anything.”

She said nothing. Only, “Good God you’re tall,” she gasped.

“Six-four. Why don’t you let me pick you up, take you back to my camp,” he offered.

“I’m too heavy,” she said quickly.

He laughed. “Ma’am, if I can wear power armor for days at a time with no problem, I don’t think you’re going to break my back.”

He lifted her easily amidst her protests, and he quickly knelt down to hand her the Anti-materiel rifle. She grabbed it and clutched it to her like it was a teddy bear and not a deadly weapon.

“Where did you learn to wear power armor?” she inquired.

He sighed inwardly. He didn’t want to tell her, but he had to go and run his mouth and get her curious. He walked back to his camp site, trying to figure out a way to broach the subject.

“Uh, you ever hear of the Brotherhood of Steel?”

“Of course I have.”

He shrugged. “I learned from a member.”

“Stop,” she ordered. “Stop walking.”

Slevin stiffened and obeyed.

“They don’t take on new members. You’re either a member or a—a former one. I’m a special case…I’m an honorary member.”

He swallowed. “I—”

“Look, I don’t know who you are, but you can trust me.”

She placed a hand on his cheek and he blushed. That combination of warmth and softness wasn’t a feeling he had experienced since he was sixteen. He had forgotten how much he missed it.

She was so earnest and lovely; he couldn’t keep the truth from her. “I left the Brotherhood at sixteen. My chapter is in San Francisco. My name is Seven Dallas, by the way, but you can call me Slevin.”

She nodded. “Slevin, not Seven? Okay. Slevin. I’m Nevaeh Kennedy. Vaeh. Can you take me back home to Hidden Valley? Elder McNamara is like a father to me. He’ll be worried about me. I was supposed to return to the bunker two days ago.”

“You want—you want me to take you back to the Brotherhood? I don’t know if I can—should—I? You’re hurt and I can’t leave you, but I can’t go back and I—hell.”

Her eyes were filling with tears. How heartless could he be? He had to take her home. He could leave her at the bunker and be on his way. He wouldn’t have to talk to anyone or do anything. Yes, that’s what he would do. Drop her off at the bunker and leave.

“All right. Let’s go,” he half-smiled.

Grateful, she kissed his cheek. “Thank-you.”

He couldn’t help but feel he was making a huge mistake, but for another kiss from Vaeh, he’d do anything. Because of that thought, he knew he was in trouble.

Because rescuing a damsel in distress always worked out to be happily ever after.


End file.
